Created in His Image

What does it mean to be created "In His Image"?

I surly cannot say I know entirely what that means, but I can say I know that certain things that He has placed in us are to be an example of His image or character.

I was thinking about how much I love my children.  I think that the love a parent has for a child is so deep and unfailing.  I think that children certainly also love their parents, but in most cases our parents love us more, with a deeper attachment.

This brings me to my thoughts of how we are created in Abba’s image with this deep love for our children.  It certainly is the example of how Abba loves us.  His love to us is full of forgiveness, and patience, filled with the desire to instruct for our good so that we might go in all the ways of life, health,  happiness, and fruitfulness.  I know that is what I desire for my children.  I desire for them to be wise and understand truth and for them to be blessed in their lives.  It pleases me when they accept discipline/direction without fussing and it pleases me when they choose to honor my instructions that I have placed over them not to control them but to protect and direct them.  Those desires in us come from Abba and are the image to show us His nature and His relationship to us as His children.

Also, I would say the desire to find a mate, get a home and start a family is also part of the example of the His image Abba placed in us because the whole story of the WORD is one of a wedding, a family and a home that is protected and provided for by the Husband and Father who loves His bride and family above all else and desires to place His name on her and bring her to His home that He created just for her!

Isn’t that amazing!  Creating us in His image is to be an example to us that shows us how He thinks about us and revealing it to us in how we think about our families!

Abba is so great (big and vast) that this does not begin to touch on the wonders that lie in the image of Him but as I pondered a parents love and How our creator/Heavenly Father loves us, these things occurred to me.

Jer 31:3  YHWH hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

Sabbath Peace

Blessings are on those who keep it...

Isa 56:2  “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it, guarding the Sabbath lest he profane it, and guarding his hand from doing any evil. 

Isa 56:6  “Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to יהוה, to serve Him, and to love the Name of יהוה, to be His servants, all who guard the Sabbath, and not profane it, and hold fast to My covenant – 

Isa 58:13  “If you do turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My set-apart day, and shall call the Sabbath ‘a delight,’ the set-apart day of יהוה ‘esteemed,’ and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, 

Isa 58:14  then you shall delight yourself in יהוה. And I shall cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Yaʽaqoḇ your father. For the mouth of יהוה has spoken!”

Have a blessed Shabbat filled with health and peace!

A FEW RANDOM PICS OF LIFE...AROUND OUR HOUSE

This week at our house...just a few pictures to share:)

She's a star:)

Don't worry Mom, it's just Weird camera effects.

Math, math and more math.

Happy face:)  I still need some practice with the camera, eh?

P90x!  That's a work out!

Hibiscus tree in the sunshine.  Makes me feel like spring:)

Corey coming to get his babies.  

Playing kitchen out doors.

I almost got the whole baby in the shot this time, huh.

Okay, this is not Gracies week for photos...this shot is upside down...and I didn't take time to turn it around...at least I'm consistent.   But look at those cutie little shoes:)

Look at that pretty hair.

Dora pezzle...B calls 'em pezzles not puzzles:)

My pretties.

Green.  I love green, have I mentioned that?

I saved the best for last...
Tanner you're the best uncle!  (He's walking with B, pushing her stroller with her babies covered up in it)  It was kind of a walk-run kinda thing but I laughed at the sight of Uncle Tanner pushing the stroller...didn't expect that one.  He'll be a good daddy someday:)

No pictures of Caleb?  Since I got my new camera, he and Tanner both got our older ones.   He is now my partner in picture taking crime...dadada (that's the suspense sound inserted there)!

Psa 115:12  יהוה has remembered us; He blesses us; He blesses the house of Yisra’ĕl; He blesses the house of Aharon. 

Hope you have a blessed weekend and a restful Sabbath.

New Moon Sighted in Israel...Passover just 14 days away!

The New Moon has been seen in Israel!

This marks the beginning of the first Biblical month and a New Year!!

This picture is of the new moon outside our house this evening (It's very small in the near the upper center of the picture).  This is very exciting!!

The men blew Blow the shofar!

Psa 81:3  Blow the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. 

This also marks the counting down to Pesach (Passover)!!!.

 Num 28:16  ‘And in the first month, on the fourteenth day, is the Passover of יהוה (YHWH), 

Num 28:17  and on the fifteenth day of this month is a festival. For seven days unleavened bread is eaten. 

Num 28:18  ‘On the first day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work. 

Exo 12:18  ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. 

Exo 12:19  ‘For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra’ĕl, whether sojourner or native of the land. 

Exo 12:20  ‘Do not eat that which is leavened – in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.’ ” 

We understand that Yahushuah was the fulfillment of the Passover and that His blood covers our sins, once for all.  However, we are instructed to remember or observe this time throughout all our generations as it is a commandment of YHWH to ALL  the house of Israel.

Exo 15:26  And He said, “If you diligently obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim and do what is right in His eyes, and shall listen to His commands and shall guard all His laws, I shall bring on you none of the diseases I brought on the Mitsrites (Egypt), for I am יהוה who heals you.” 

I think if Abba asks us to remember the sacrifice His son made for His people, through out all generations, it's just not too much for us to "hear and do".

Deu 6:1- 25  “And this is the command, the laws and right-rulings which יהוה your Elohim has commanded, to teach you to do in the land which you are passing over to possess, 

  so that you fear יהוה your Elohim, to guard all His laws and His commands which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days be prolonged. 

  “And you shall hear, O Yisra’ĕl, and shall guard to do, that it might be well with you, and that you increase greatly as יהוה Elohim of your fathers has spoken to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 

  “Hear, O Yisra’ĕl: יהוה our Elohim, יהוה is one! 

  “And you shall love יהוה your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your might. 

  “And these Words which I am commanding you today shall be in your heart, 

  and you shall impress them upon your children, and shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up, 

  and shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 

  “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

  “And it shall be, when יהוה your Elohim brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Yaʽaqoḇ, to give you great and good cities which you did not build, 

  and houses filled with all kinds of goods, which you did not fill, and wells dug which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you shall eat and be satisfied – 

  be on guard, lest you forget יהוה who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, from the house of bondage. 

  “Fear יהוה your Elohim and serve Him, and swear by His Name. 

  “Do not go after other mighty ones, the mighty ones of the peoples who are all around you, 

  for יהוה your Elohim is a jealous Ěl in your midst, lest the displeasure of יהוה your Elohim burn against you, then He shall destroy you from the face of the earth. 

  “Do not try יהוה your Elohim as you tried Him in Massah. 

  “Diligently guard the commands of יהוה your Elohim, and His witnesses, and His laws which He has commanded you. 

“And you shall do what is right and good in the eyes of יהוה, that it might be well with you, and you shall go in and possess the good land of which יהוה swore to your fathers, 

  to drive out all your enemies from before you, as יהוה has spoken. 

  “When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the witnesses, and the laws, and the right-rulings which יהוה our Elohim has commanded you?’ 

  then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Mitsrayim, and יהוה brought us out of Mitsrayim with a strong hand, 

  and יהוה sent signs and wonders, great and grievous, upon Mitsrayim, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes. 

  ‘And He brought us out from there, to bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. 

  ‘And יהוה commanded us to do all these laws, to fear יהוה our Elohim, for our good always, to keep us alive, as it is today. 

 ‘And it is righteousness for us when we guard to do all this command before יהוה our Elohim, as He has commanded us.

So, to Honor our Heavenly Father, we will expect to be celebrating the Feast of Passover on the evening of April 18, 2011 and the Feast of unleavened bread for 7 days following.

Yay!

May YHWH open His blessing upon you in this new month as you prepare your home and your hearts for Passover.

Chodesh Tov. (Good month)

Shalom!!

Coming to life...Around Our House

The Geese are back on the pond.  They come every spring.  I love to watch them.  I love that when they come, it means spring is here.  They usually show up in pairs because when they mate, they mate for life.  When one shows up alone, I feel sad for them.  I hope they just haven't found their mate yet but soon will and that they won't be alone for long.

Green is starting to pop up all over, it is beautiful.  I love green.  The frogs are awake again, chirping really loudly.  I love to hear them.  It sounds so "woodsy" to hear them.  Once they start, you can hear them in the morning and at night.  As I stand here by the pond admiring the life around it, I can also hear the sound of a wood pecker, hard at it.  I can't see him in the trees, I can only hear him.

Isn't the reflection on the water, beautiful.

This picture isn't really that pretty because things are still mostly brown but if you look closely, you can see all the little ducks out there.  They're so cute and little.  They won't let me get near them.  They quickly move to the other side of the pond when I even look as though I might be headed in their direction.  I don't like to scare them, I just want to watch.

Ole Sam.  

I love his eyes.  I love how they look so gold against his blackness.  He always looks so very stern and serious...looks can be so deceiving.

He follows me out to the pond to see what I'm up to.  He just wants some good pettin'.  He's such a good boy.  He's one of my favorite kitties that hang out here.  He sits by my door all the time, waiting for me to come out and pet him (and probably feed him).  He's a lover.  He's so playful and ornery.  I watch him as he lays in wait for the other kitties so he can jump on them (as if they didn't see him waiting to pounce on them) and take them by surprise.  I watch him as he playfully scurries up a tree playing with his kitty friends.  He makes me laugh at how silly he is.  So innocent.  He doesn't know there's a bad thing in the world...except those mean ol' tom cats, but they don't really bother him yet either.  For him, life is just a pond, food in the morning, a little girl who chases him around trying to make him her "baby" 4 days out of the week and his kitty friends.  Not bad. 

These pictures brought to you by my new:

Canon Power Shot, SD 4500 IS, Digital ELPH

(I have no idea how to use it yet but I have every intention of figuring this out!) 

Thank you Craig, you're a good man:)

I love you.